FORGOTTEN BUD VARIATIONS 
Early Orange Growers Found Many ‘‘Sports” but did not Recognize Their 
Significance—Origin of New Varieties—Great Care Needed in 
Propagation to Get only the Most Desirable 
Variations 
L. B. Scott 
Assistant Pomologist, Office of Horticultural and Pomological Investigations, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C. 
HE work which A. D. Shamel, of 
the Office of Horticultural and 
Pomological Investigations of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
has done in demonstrating the variations 
existing within standard citrus varieties 
has awakened practical citrus growers 
at least to a realization of the great 
individual tree differences in their own 
plantings and also to the surprising 
frequency with which bud sports occur 
in standard citrus varieties. 
The investigational work and obser- 
vations made by members of the staff 
in California, Florida, the Gulf States, 
Brazil and Cuba have shown that all 
citrus varieties in every section have 
this tendency to break up into a number 
of different strains. These strains are 
found occurring as whole trees, as limb 
sports and as individual fruit sports. 
It is most interesting in this connection 
to note that some of the old citrus 
pioneers of thirty years ago observed 
striking instances of bud variations, 
but unfortunately were unable to cor- 
relate the observations which they made 
or to realize that they had within their 
grasp a principle which has since been 
demonstrated by Mr. Shamel to be of 
vital importance to all citrus growers. 
Even a casual perusal of the old files 
of the Office of Horticultural and 
Pomological Investigations will show 
that the old horticulturists, both in 
Florida and California, were attempting 
to explain the variations which they 
observed. As a rule, a sporting fruit 
was generally explained as having been 
caused by cross-fertilization. An ex- 
ample of such an explanation is con- 
452 
tained in the following extract of a 
letter from E. H. Hart, Federal Point, 
Fla., February 10, 1887, addressed to 
Prof. H. E. Van Deman, Pomologist of 
the United States Department of Agri- 
culture: 
“T send you today as per enclosed 
shipping receipt a box of oranges setting 
forth the contrasts between their normal 
condition and after having been sub- 
jected to fertilization with pollen from 
the Navel orange. These ought to 
prove conclusively the effect of hybridiz- 
ing upon the fruit as well as the seed. 
You will observe not only striking 
modifications in shape but also in the 
flavor. The varieties most clearly re- 
sembling the Navel in habit of growth 
and outlines of fruit are much more 
readily affected except perhaps in the 
case of Citrus nobilis, which although 
the very antipodes of the Navel struc- 
turally as well as geographically, never- 
theless mixes with it more often than 
any. It is somewhat singular too that 
propinquity does not always favor the 
mixture as trees at a little distance are 
more often affected than when both 
kinds have been grafted onto one 
stock.”’ 
The tendency of all citrus varieties to 
throw Navel sports is very pronounced; 
the fact that Mr. Hart observed this in 
1887 is interesting although his explana- 
tion of the cause was wrong. 
On March 12, 1887, J. E. Cutter, a 
prominent citrus grower and nursery- 
man, of Riverside, Cal., sent in to the 
Department at Washington a number 
of samples of orange varieties. Included 
in the list were two distinct lots of 
